1. Field
One embodiment of the invention relates to a relay device and a relay method that relays transmission of a video stream.
2. Description of the Related Art
The High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) standard is now becoming widely used for transmission of a video signal and an audio signal between a television set and a recording device.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2008-35190 discloses a technique in which a display device requests a physical address for an external device on an HDMI network to acquire and manage a connection state between itself and the external device.
Further, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2008-34976 discloses a display system. In the display system, an audio-visual amplifier with a repeater function is connected to a display device having only one HDMI input terminal. The audio-visual amplifier has two HDMI input terminals and thereby serves as a relay device.
A conventional technique can only deal with a transmission (native) between devices on a transmission path B or a transmission (passthrough) through a device on the transmission B to a device on a transmission path A which is one-to-one connected to the device on the transmission B and cannot perform physical address conversion satisfactorily when a plurality of sink devices (TV set, etc.) exist. As a result, in the conventional technique, transmission path control and video stream transmission cannot be performed.